Jefferson Davis' Undying Devotion to Consensual Government

After I finished my book, Union At All Costs: From Confederation to Consolidation, I was asked who I more fully understood and respected. My answer was Jefferson Finis Davis. First of all, to say Davis was a reluctant president is an understatement. Indeed, even in the mid-1800s individuals who based their beliefs on the original intent of the Federal Republic had diminished. In a modern context, Ron Paul has been the closest thing to the “original republicans” in that he understands the voluntary nature of the compact, the way federalism should work, the value of sound money, and the dangers of foreign interventionism.

Pre-war Jefferson Davis was not affiliated with “corporate interests” but he was connected to States Rights (Federalism) and Agrarianism. In the tradition of Thomas Jefferson and even more so, John Taylor of Caroline, Davis recognized the merits of agrarian societies. Taylor, a Virginia Anti-Federalist and “Classical Liberal,” often favorably compared to Marcus Porcius Cato, the Roman historian and senator, vehemently opposed central banking and the “Money Power.” He firmly believed agriculture encouraged self-reliance and morality and was thus central to independence. Like Taylor and others, Davis also understood the flaws of the slave labor system and was seen as a fair-minded slave owner. Indeed, many of his supervisors were Black and he was known to intervene if punishment for misdeeds was too harsh. Davis recognized the South was predisposed to be agricultural even if slavery had never been foisted on the Southern States, stating:

An agricultural people, whose chief interest is the export of commodities required in every manufacturing country, our true policy is peace, and the freest trade which our necessities will permit. It is alike our interest and that of all those to whom we would sell, and from whom we would buy, that there be the fewest practicable restrictions upon the interchange of these commodities.

Davis also understood the underlying basis of the Declaration of Independence, stating:

It illustrates the American idea that governments rest on the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish them at will when they become destructive of the ends for which they were established…and when, in the judgement of the sovereign States composing this Confederacy, it has been perverted from the purposes for which it was ordained.

Modern critics claim States’ Rights was a post-war creation yet the topic was covered in depth in the late 1700s within Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolutions and Madison’s Virginia Resolution. These resolutions were in direct response to the draconian Alien & Sedition Acts pushed through by the Federalists. Between the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the War Between the States, Southerners and Northerners echoed their belief in State sovereignty and federalism, none more than Jefferson Davis. In 1846 Davis referenced the only source of the Federal Government’s powers. “I answer, it is the creature of the States; as such it could have no inherent power, all it possesses was delegated by the States.” Reflecting his belief in federalism, Davis added, “I shall die, as I have lived, firm in the States’ rights faith.”

After the war, Davis lamented the ignorant attitude of some of his fellow Southerners.

Nothing fills me with deeper sadness than to see a southern man apologizing for the defence we made of our inheritance & denying the truths on which all our institutions were founded. To be crushed by superior force, to be robbed & insulted, were great misfortunes, but these could be borne while there still remained manhood to assert the truth, and a proud consciousness in the rectitude of our course. When…I find myself reviled by Southern papers as one renewing “dead issues,” the pain is not caused by the attack upon myself, but its desecration of the memories of our Fathers & those of their descendants who staked in defense of their rights—their lives, their property & their sacred honor. To deny the justice of their cause, to apologize for its defense, and denounce it as a dead issue, is to take the last of their stakes, that for which they were willing to surrender the other.

Miraculously, some in the modern world truly believe the Union was created as an inescapable entity. Most of the Founders would be astounded at such thinking. A common contemporary refrain is “vote the bums out,” yet, at the top so many answer to the same masters. The “leaders” of each party are typically on the same team (per Bill Clinton’s mentor, Carroll Quigley in Tragedy and Hope). This was noted by George Wallace’s “not a dimes worth of difference” comment. Finally, how many times have we witnessed the reality of the famous lines sung by Roger Daltrey: “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.”?

Sources: “Confederate States of America—Inaugural Address of the President of the Provisional Government, February 18, 1861,” The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_csainau.asp; Admiral Raphael Semmes, CSN Captain of the Alabama, Memoirs of Service Afloat (Secaucus, New Jersey: The Blue & Grey Press, 1987); Union At All Costs: From Confederation to Consolidation, by John M. Taylor; Jefferson Davis—The Unforgiven, by Grady McWhiney (Biloxi, Mississippi: The Beauvoir Press, 1989); Scott M. Terry, “John Taylor of Caroline, Defender of the Agrarian Republic,” North Country Farmer, February 23, 2012, http://www.northcountryfarmer.com/?p=295;

Won’t Get Fooled Again (Pete Townsend, 1971, from Who’s Next, argues that political changes are typically superficial and the new boss is typically as corrupt as the one he/she replaced.) George Carlin echoed this “behind the scenes control” with his 2005 comment: “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.” NOTE: Despite the South’s failure to gain independence, Davis said he would do it all again because he was correct constitutionally and based on the principles of self-government. Jefferson Davis’ birthday is June 3rd.

THE VIEWS OF SUBMITTED EDITORIALS MAY NOT BE THE EXPRESS VIEWS OF THE ALABAMA GAZETTE.